Vincente Minnelli started out as a set and costume designer in New York, where he first notably applied his aesthetic principles to the Broadway stage design of Scheherazade. He became the first director of New York's "Radio City Music Hall", as well as some of the most lavish Broadway musicals, including Ziegfeld Follies, and brought Josephine Baker back from Paris to star in his shows. As a film director, he discovered Lena Horne in a Harlem nightclub and cast her in his first movie, the legendary musical Cabin in the Sky.The winner of the Best Director Academy Award for Gigi, the first film to win in all nine of its Oscar nominations, Minnelli also directed such classics as the Oscar-winning "An American in Paris", "Meet Me in St. Louis", "Father of the Bride", "The Bad and the Beautiful", and "Some Came Running". He was married to Judy Garland, who he met on the set of "Meet Me in St. Louis" and directed in such landmark films as "The Clock"; their daughter is actress-singer Liza Minnelli.

Author Biography

EMANUEL LEVY is a critic, author of nine film books, and film professor at University of California Los Angeles. A two-time president of the LA Film Critics Association, Levy, a former critic of Variety and chief critic of Screen International, and is now editor of the acclaimed website, EmanuelLevy.com. A frequent juror at major international film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, and Sundance, he has written for a wide variety of publications from the Los Angeles Times to the Financial Times. He lives in Los Angeles, California